Update, Monday, 1:30PM:Weekend actuals are rolling in, and while Hunger Games – Mockingjay – Part 1 was actually up over its 3-day estimate of $56.875M with an actual of $56.97M. At $82.6M, the threequel still holds its five-day holiday record (third best 5-day haul for a film playing over Thanksgiving). Frosh openers DreamWorks Animated Penguins of Madagascartook $25.447M over FSS in second with a a five-day of $35.4M while Warner Bros./New Line’s Horrible Bosses 2settled for 5th place with $15.45M for the 3-day and $22.77M for the 5-day — much slightly under their Sunday AM figures.

Year to date domestic box office is still dragging behind the same post Thanksgiving Sunday a year ago (starting on Jan. 1 for both frames) by 4.3%, with a grand total of $9.44B per Rentrak. All films on the chart this past weekend totaled $163.15M, down 22% from last year’s post Thanksgiving weekend record of $208.069M. That figure is actually a tad higher than what the 2008 Turkey frame grossed — but understand that a $160M weekend is quite normal for this period. Last year was an all-time high, beating the previous year’s $207.77M which was propped by Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 2 as well as four other films that made over $20M: Skyfall, Lincoln, Life of Pi and Rise of the Guardians.

Black Friday competition, lower Thanksgiving, downer year — call it whatever you want in terms of the factors that impacted this year’s post holiday weekend. Pound for pound, Catching Fire was a more riveting film for moviegoers than Mockingjay — hence the difference between their 3-day post turkey weekend grosses ($17.2M). Not to mention, last year, Frozen, a big time draw for females at 57% racked up $67.4M FSS. It was unopposed by another animated film in the market and benefited from the chicks spilling out of Catching Fire (Free Birds wasn’t a break out like Big Hero 6). Stack that up against the two toons in the market this weekend, Penguins and Big Hero 6, (together totaling $44.24M) and that’s $23.2M of family cash missing from the marketplace.

Other highlights: Sony expanded The Equalizer by 167 hubs, pushing the Denzel Washington shoot-em up over the century mark.

Upcoming: 20th Century Fox will be opening The Pyramid at an estimated 550 theaters — next weekend’s only wide release. Fox Searchlight has Wild starring Reese Witherspoon bowing in five theaters in New York and LA, based on the New York Times Cheryl Strayed hiking-soul searcher memoir.

Previous, Sunday, 7:37AM:Liongate’s The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 feasted on a lot of bucks during the Thanksgiving stretch, grossing an estimated 5-day cume of $82.685M, the third-highest take for any film playing over the Wed-Sunday holiday span.

That number puts Mockingjay right behind the 5-day all-time Thanksgiving records of Catching Fire ($109.9M) and Frozen($93.6M). Over the Friday-to-Sunday span, Mockingjay grossed $57.9M off a nice 53% from its opening weekend. Current cume for the threequel stands at $225.7M.

Mockingjay flew high despite a soft holiday headwind that grounded other debuts this weekend. Overall, the total estimated haul for all films over three days is expected to be $165M, down 21% from last year’s all-time record of $208.1M.

Now, though it’s down a lot, that figure isn’t excruciatingly bad; it’s on par with what the post-Turkey FSS was pulling down in 2011 and 2005. However, as Warner Bros. distribution chief Dan Fellman observes, “There’s lost money on the table.”

This is further underscored by the fact that Thanksgiving, while typically a low day (people go to the movies after dinner), was also off 21% from last year because Black Friday shopping starting earlier. While doorbusters typically occur at midnight Friday, some major chains were throwing open their doors at 5 or 6pm on Thanksgiving, and that put a dent in moviegoing.

So while both Penguins of Madagascar and Horrible Bosses 2 came in much lower than their estimates (respective five-day cumes of $36M and $23M), it’s not like audiences were walking out. In fact, the glowing response for both new releases will keep word of mouth going. Again, holiday moviegoing is a marathon, not a sprint (so DreamWorks Animation shareholders, don’t go freaking out tomorrow trying to unload stock. Just calm down. Animated films aren’t dead from their opening weekend).

Kids are the driving force with Penguins this holiday season, and they awarded the pungent birds with a 4 1/2 out of five-star rating. Cinemascore is A- (nothing to cry about here). 58% of the opening weekend crowd was under 25.

Drilling down further: 54% of the crowd was under the age of 10. Female/male ratio was 51%/49%. 3D repped 24% of the gross. Aside from those moms who opted to take their kids to Kohl’s and Best Buy instead of the movie theater, also eating Penguins’ dinner was Disney’s animated Big Hero 6 – which only fell 7% from last weekend with $18.8M over FSS and $26M over five.

Yes, this nation’s big enough to accommodate two kids’ pics in the marketplace – it would be interesting, though, to see how much higher Penguins would be if Big Hero 6 wasn’t around. However, the two have the nation’s multiplexes all to themselves before Sony’s Anniereboot and Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tombshows up to distract kids on Dec. 19.

Dissecting HB2′s Cinemascore, the under 25ers at 41% loved it with an A-, and those are the folks who are gonna keep goin’ to the film next weekend, when there’s zero new wide releases (over 1,000-plus). Over 25 gave it a B, as well as males (51%). Females (49%) liked the film a bit more with a B+.

We called it out on Friday: Warner Bros. was gunning for the highest bow for an R-rated comedy over Thanksgiving, and they got it. 2003’s Bad Santawas the last one with a $12.3M three-day and $16.8M five-day. Seeing the opportunity to counter-program with bawdy laughs, Warner Bros. took it. Bad Santa‘s final cume of $60.1Mwas a 3.6 multiple of its five-day, and if HB2 emulates that, it will end its run somewhere in the low $80Ms.

Neither Bosses nor Penguins could knock Paramount’s Interstellar out of the top 5. The Christopher Nolan sci-fi drama took fourth, buoyed significantly by its IMAX hubs, generated $22M over five days. At 370 IMAX theaters stateside, Interstellar rang up $5.7M over three days (up 15% from last weekend) and $7.8M over five. IMAX share of Interstellar is 29% or $42M. The film is up 3% over last weekend (say it…say it…. “All right, all…”)

Audiences stood up and clapped, giving the film an A+, while Deadline commenters cried that the Benedict Cumberbatch-Keira Knightley World War II drama wasn’t playing in their neighborhood (It’s four theaters in New York and LA this weekend, guys. Don’t worry, Denver; it will be there by Christmas Day at the latest).

Adults love the awards-contending fare that’s out there: The Theory of Everythingsaw a 236% boost from its 662-theater expansion, notching up to 7th place in the top 10. Birdman shed 152 theaters and still remained in the top 10, up 1% in its 3-day thanks to the holiday.

Previous, Saturday, 8:24AM:Lionsgate is seeing Mockingjay with $24.1M, while Fox, which is handling Penguins, is looking at a Friday of $10.5M and a running Wednesday, Thursday, Friday total of $20.7M in second. Horrible Bosses 2, in fifth with $6.2M and a WTF of $13.5M, was beat by Big Hero 6 in third ($7.7M, total $156.2M) and Interstellar in fourth ($6.6M, $137.9M). Imitation Game came in better than expected on four hubs with $181K and a per screen of $45,283.

Previous, Saturday, 2:30AM: In her second Friday, Katniss has built up a blazing force field at No. 1 that no Penguin or Horrible Boss would ever think about crossing. In late Friday night estimates, Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 is looking to count an estimated $24.4M, and while that figure is down 55% from the threequel’s opening day (with previews) from a week ago, it was up 121% over its turkey day returns of $11.05M. Everyone was too full to go out to the multiplex last night, leaving moviegoing for either side of the holiday. By Sunday, even though Mockingjay will still trail Catching Fire and Hunger Games through its first 10 days, this bird might just have some records to sing about. After starting the holiday frame with a robust Wednesday of $14.55M, which is just above the respective pre-turkey Wednesdays of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 ($14.4M) and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 ($12.4M), Mockingjay could chart a holiday five-day take in the low $80Ms. Should Katniss surpass $82.4M, the turkey five day cume of the first Harry Potter, she’ll own the holiday’s third highest Wednesday-Sunday haul behind Catching Fire ($109.9M) and Frozen ($93.6M). Bottom line: Mockingjay is no turkey. The Hunger Games threequel can rest easy and will likely hold the top bird title until Moses parts a red sea to the top spot of the box office on Dec. 12 with Exodus: Gods and Kings. There aren’t any frosh wide bows scheduled for next Friday that will exceed 1,000 theaters.

In regards to DreamWorks Animation’s Penguins of Madagascarand Warner Bros./New Line’s Horrible Bosses 2, well, they’re comin’ up slow. Katniss wasn’t the only one kickin’ their butts, but Big Hero 6 was arguably stealing some of Penguins‘ turkey, while Interstellar looks like it had more gas Friday than HB2‘s nitrous oxide. Penguins and HB2 nabbed respective ratings of A- and B+, the latter the same as the first Horrible Bosses (which registered a final cume of $117.5M that was 4x its 3-day opening of $28.3M). However, similar to Katniss’ plight, they’re looking at the holidays as a marathon, not a sprint, even if both titles file figures below their projected low to mid $40M five-day estimates.

Penguins is expected to post a Friday spike of 163% over its Thanksgiving gross of $3.95M or $10.4M. Among similar properties that played during previous Thanksgivings, the Madagascar spin-off is looking to place under the five-day cumes of 2007’s Happy Feet ($50.6M), but well above 2004’s SpongeBob SquarePants’ $23.5M, however those films were in their second frames. On a pure DreamWorks Animation spinoff vs. spinoff comparison, Penguins could conceivably clock a five-day that’s just under Puss in Boot’s $38.6M, even though that film opened during late October 2011. Kids’ fare traditionally sees a surge on Black Friday over Thanksgiving before slipping gradually on Saturday and Sunday.

Ya know, when the dust settles Monday morning, HB2 might be looking at some sort of low-bar industry record as the highest opening for a Thanksgiving R-rated comedy — because it’s arguably the only one to ever bow during the holiday. There was Fox’s R-rated Anne Hathaway-Jake Gyllenhaal 2010 feature Love and Other Drugs ($13.9M five-day cume) which bowed over Thanksgiving, but that was a romantic dramedy. Usually, the R-rated product unspooling during this stretch are action films, i.e. Enemy of the State, End of Days or dark ones like Sleepy Hollow. HB2 is expected to post a 96% surge of $6M over its turkey Thursday gross of $3.06M.

Among specialty newcomers, Weinstein Co.’s awards buzz title The Imitation Game is looking to register a great Black Friday take of $177K. The period drama about World War II British mathematician Alan Turing looks to open approximately $100K higher than 2010’s The King’s Speech which collected $355K at four theaters.

Below are the industry Top 10 box office estimates as of late Friday courtesy of Deadline’s statistician Amanda Nduka: